Single women continue to search for commitment while single men are quite happy with casual encounters.

And gentlemen, open your wallets: you are still expected to pay for that first date.

The findings form part of a Nielsen survey of more than 3300 single Australians for the Fairfax Media-owned dating website, rsvp.com.au.

The RSVP ''Date of the Nation'' report found 15 per cent of single men were not formally dating because they were satisfied with more casual liaisons while just 1 per cent of women felt the same way.

Overall, more women than men indicated they wished to tie the knot and spend their life with the one partner. But younger men were the most romantically inclined, with 65 per cent of generation Y males saying a serious relationship was very important to them compared with 53 per cent of generation Y females.

''The young guys actually placed a serious relationship quite high up there,'' the RSVP general manager, Glenis Carroll, said.

''They were much more likely than the older age groups to say a primary relationship was important to them.''

Respondents in the generation Y demographic were also more likely to say they wanted to exchange vows, with 73 per cent of females saying they would like to marry and 61 per cent of males saying the same.

And members of generation Y are willing to wait for that special person, with 22 per cent saying they had not yet had sex.

''They're getting a little bit more conservative in terms of what they are looking for,'' Ms Carroll said.

The single baby boomers, on the other hand, appear to be making up for lost time. The over-50s are more likely to have sex on the first date and less likely to say they want to settle down.

''They are a bit less conservative, possibly because they're not looking for the one,'' Ms Carroll said.